Drung

ETHNONYMS: Derung, Dulongzu, Qiu, Tulong

One of the smallest minority groups of China, the Drung in 1990 numbered
5,816. They are located in northwestern Yunnan Province, near the Myanmar
(Burma) border, and are spread over an area of a hundred miles along the
valleys of the Dulong River. Mountains of 4,000 to 5,000 meters above sea
level enclose the area, and climate varies from the semitropics of the
valleys to six-month snow cover at higher altitudes. The Drung language
belongs to the Tibeto-Burman Branch of Sino-Tibetan and is very close to
one of the neighboring Nuzu dialects. Between the Tang and Song dynasties
they were first a frontier people of the Nanzhao Kingdom and then under
the authority of the Dali Kingdom. From the Song until late Qing dynasties
they were part of the domain of the Lijiang (Naxi)
tusi
system of appointed native officials whose posts became hereditary, and
in late Qing much of the area was a part of the temple domain of a Tibetan
Lamaist monastery. To add to these threats to their autonomy and cultural
identity, they were under considerable pressure from the Lisu and some
were incorporated into Lisu society as slaves.

The Drung continue to exploit a number of ecological niches with a local
economy based on slash-and-burn agriculture (maize, wheat, beans),
fishing, forest and mountain hunting, and collecting of wild plants for
food and medicinal use. Since the 1950s, the government has encouraged the
planting of paddy rice and raising of cattle and pigs. Although the Drung
have been pressured to adopt Chinese dress, they continue to weave the
distinctive striped flax cloth that is worn by both sexes as a cloak,
skirt, or wrapping during the day and serves as a blanket at night.

In the late 1940s and 1950s the Drung were still organized into fifteen
exogamous patrilineal clans (
nile
)
,
each of which held claim to particular valley lands, mountain lands, and
forest areas. The clans were divided into
ke'eng,
or villages, composed of several closely related multigeneration
households of twenty to thirty persons each. There were village communal
lands and lands assigned to houses. Each personal name incorporated three
names: the name of the clan, house, or village; one's same-sex
parent's name; and an individual given name. Nowadays, a person
must also have a proper Chinese name for registration purposes. At
puberty, girls received facial tattoos that indicated their clan
affiliation, a custom no longer followed.

Marriages were parentally arranged and usually monogamous. Some polygamy
occurred, either through the levirate or through marriage to two or more
women of the same ke'eng. Residence was patrilocal. Cattle, iron
items, and cloth were required as the bride-price. Bride-service was
sometimes substituted to fulfill the payments. Since the clans were
ranked, it was unusual for a man's sister to marry into the clan
from which he and his agnates drew brides. Women had high status in their
marital households, participating in economic decisions and overseeing the
distribution of resources, as well as participating in agricultural labor.

In 1956, the Drung-Nu Autonomous County was established, and authorities
encouraged the Drung to participate in a land-reform program. (Chinese
sources disagree about the extent to which this plan was carried out and
how.) Shortly thereafter, the government organized the Drung into
collectives and communes, which did not replicate former clan or lineage
holdings but instead created new units in which Drung of various clans
joined members of other ethnic groups to work assigned areas of land. This
plan was facilitated by government irrigation projects that opened up some
6,000 hectares for paddy rice in the Dulong River valley. However, recent
reports (see Shen Che) suggest that many Drung can be found in the
uplands, practicing their traditional economy. Even so, the institution of
the extended-family communal longhouse is disappearing, rejected by the
younger generation.

The religion is animistic, with shaman practitioners. In the 1930s some of
the Drung were highly receptive to the teachings of American and Canadian
Protestant missionaries in the area, and in the mid-1950s it was estimated
that close to one-third of the Drung identified themselves as Christian.